Tuesday, February 06, 2007

The story of a gunman taking over a health care clinic has been deep-sixed for the sexier female astronaut goes ballistic over love triangle. Yesterday an armed man took over a Primecare clinic in Dothan Alabama for several hours. Today the story gives more information on his motivation. Apparently the disturbed man was an unhappy customer, having visited the clinic earlier that morning.

This is what Dothan Police Chief John Powell said happened at the medical facility Monday:

Jason Andrew Murphy of Quail Creek Drive, entered PrimeCare at 11:17 a.m. armed with a high-powered assault rifle and handgun. He showed a gun and ordered the patients in the lobby area to leave the building. Murphy then fired several shots into the back of the medical facility.

Murphy's motive is still unknown, but he had been at PrimeCare earlier Monday and then returned with the guns later and was "upset with the care he was provided."

Mr. Murphy just enlisted in the National Guard and completed his Advanced Individual Training and assigned to the Dothan Based 186th Engineering Company according to a spokesperson for the Alabama National Guard. So what kind of person takes over a health care clinic because they are upset about the service they received?

Classmates of Murphy weren't shocked to hear the Dothan teen was the gunman involved in a two-and-a-half hour stand-off with police Monday."Everybody knew one day he would do something crazy," former classmate Elizabeth English said of Murphy. "He was someone we always wondered if he'd come into the school with a gun."

She described Murphy as "kind of weird" and talked about a school project where Murphy filmed himself blowing something up and catching something on fire requiring the fire department's assistance.

Did the guard recruit him for his explosives capabilities? As a result of his actions at the clinic Jason has been charged with making terrorist threats with more charges to follow. What does this say about the types of people entering military service? Didn’t they just lower their standards to meet recruiting targets?

Who will pay the price for including people who “one day would do something crazy”? As long as the explosive personality is aimed at the enemy, is that OK? My gut says no…